The Biggest Mistakes Consulting Firms Made in 2024

We have worked with dozens of consulting firms this past year. Each one, on the surface level, presented a unique case. They were in different industries, offering other services, and were of various sizes. Yet, as we delved deeper, recurring patterns and common themes among these consultancies became apparent.

These big mistakes often keep these consulting firms stuck in low-margin, project-by-project work, struggling to break through ‘The Project Wall’. 

In this article, we’ll dive deeper into some of the most common or pronounced mistakes we’ve observed. 

11 mistakes consulting firms make that hinder their growth

No, this list is not just about the challenging market. Yes, despite upticks in several expertise domains and industries, the consulting market remains challenging. Budgets are under pressure, competition is fierce, and clients are more cautious. None of this is particularly new. We’ve been operating under restrictive market conditions for several years.

The truth is that the mistakes we are discussing here aren't symptoms of a tough market. They amplify the market challenges.

Vague propositions, short-term thinking, and capability selling (without intentionally designed client success journeys) hurt performance and push consultancies into the sea of sameness, making them indistinguishable from the thousands of other firms.

#1. The ad-hoc approach instead of intentional design

We’ve seen too many firms operate reactively. They improvise, chase immediate urgencies, and “go with the flow”.

These consultancies often sell a “raw” capability—taking on any project related to their area of expertise or capabilities. Unsurprisingly, this leads to unstable revenue, inconsistent quality, and a lot of variance in the firm. It only increases complexity costs and reduces the opportunity to build true expertise. Without even intending to, these consulting firms become jacks-of-all-trades instead of highly sought-after masters who get paid premium fees.

So, how can these firms turn it around? What are high-performing consultancies doing differently to protect their businesses from the downward spiral? They employ intentional design to determine the parameters of their work.

Intentional design involves developing and implementing strategies for attracting clients, delivering value, and ensuring long-term growth. Not every incoming client request is accepted—only those that fit neatly into the narrowly defined area of expertise and service portfolio. Instead of “going with the flow,” these consulting firms use an education-based inbound motion to attract prospects, a constantly evaluated and optimised process. Every action is a measured, predetermined step in a specific direction.

Recommended reading: How a Boutique Consultancy Can Escape the Toxic Chasing of New Clients

#2. Vague, fluffy consultancy propositions

“We help you grow revenue and decrease costs”. We have encountered a variation of this type of proposition an alarming number of times. There is nothing concrete – just vague promises.

Another common approach to consultancy propositions we’ve noticed is capability-based – e.g., “We are experts in [insert category] consulting”. You don’t say!

These propositions lack specificity, clarity, and personality. Who are they catering to? What specific problems do they resolve for their clients? What is their unique method for resolving these problems? That’s what a risk-averse modern consulting service buyer wants to know.

On the other hand, high-performing consulting firms stand out with their value-driven propositions. They convey a distinct point of view, conviction, and culture. They don’t try to impress with their “90 years of combined experience.” Instead, they attract clients and command premium fees due to their demonstrated track record of achieving measurable results.

Still very common: Low scores in the “Proposition Review” TVA does for clients. Vertical: the Value Proposition Dimensions. Horizontal: the Specificy-Precision-Personality Dimensions. The average score of our projects is around 35/75.

• Specificity: Clarify which specific issue, ideal client, and method you focus on.
• Precision: The clarity and vividness with which you describe the above.
• Personality: Bring your point-of-view and core beliefs to the fore.

#3. Struggling to attract new clients

We have come across many firms that rely on hope-based pipelines instead of intentional visibility and sharp, issue-led messaging. “Winging it” appears to be the foundation of their business development.

In our experience, such a lack of systematised client attraction is often caused by a lack of strategic investment and a disciplined approach to strengthening business development and marketing capabilities and strategies. We have spoken to numerous consulting owners and leaders who were unwilling to commit resources to building marketing capabilities or were uncertain about where to start.

Consulting is an industry riddled with marketing and sales misconceptions. Many people stubbornly follow old-school strategies, such as winning and dining prospects and cold outreaches.

Conversely, high-performing consulting firms have long adopted a systematised approach to inbound client attraction. Leadership and marketing teams collaborate to develop messaging, audience education-driven thought leadership, promotional strategies, lead capture funnels, and strict lead qualification standards. 

#4. Lack of a signature methodology

One of our biggest learnings in the past year is that clients want proven approaches and predictable outcomes. They want to minimise risk.

Unfortunately, we’ve seen many firms operate without a clearly articulated, ownable methodology. Their inability to explain their unique, time-tested approach to resolving clients’ pain points reduces their appeal. As far as prospects are concerned, too much risk is involved, which leads to either rejections or lower fees.

As a result, these consulting firms get stuck in the commodity zone, constantly having to prove their worth through lengthy, time-consuming, and fully customised project proposals.

Recommended reading: The Best Consulting Pitch I’ve Ever Seen

#5. No programmatic existing client development

Sustainable growth is difficult—if not impossible—to achieve without financial stability as its foundation. Unfortunately, many consultancies we’ve worked with or spoken to struggled to achieve such financial stability due to their reliance on short-term, one-off projects for most of their revenue. They hit the “project wall.” 

Financial stability in the consulting business comes from revenue and pipeline predictability, which is hard to achieve without developing long-term client relationships.

This is not to say that we didn’t observe consultancies having any existing clients. Many do. However, in most instances, such account expansion resulted from an individual consultant “owning” the relationship. While it is commendable that these consulting firms have team members who can build such a high level of trust with their accounts, it presents serious risks for the business. What happens when this person leaves? Chances are that, eventually, so will their account.

Programmatic existing client development involves systematically converting new clients into loyal, long-term partners by deepening relationships, building trust, and consistently delivering value – as a business and a brand. High-performing consulting firms excel at this. They typically attract prospects through their reputation as the “go-to” experts. They sign up these prospects by demonstrating specific outcomes that they can achieve. Upon building a solid foundation of trust, they retain these clients through a strategically designed service portfolio, continuing to offer tangible value to clients over an extended period.

#6. Content without substance

Not every piece of content that consultancies and their team members create can be considered true thought leadership… and that’s fine. But a lot of it should be, and this often isn’t the case.

Most of the material out there seems to be generic, self-centered noise. We encounter such pieces daily—vague posts utterly detached from the firm’s expertise.

It's great to see more firms try to publish helpful content with some regularity. But this in itself isn't enough: the quality has to be there, too. Unfortunately, we see many firms turn to outsourcing "thought leadership" work to junior employees, external agencies, or worse: AI... it's a surefire way to guarantee your publicantion won't stand out.

If it sounds like every other consultancy, it won’t build authority.

To be impactful, content should be based on profound expertise. It is a critical job for the most senior experts in the firm and a key contribution to marketing, business development, and IP creation.

Would you trust a neuroscientist who had their graduation thesis and all subsequent publications written by students or AI?

#7. Horrible websites

We-we-we storytelling filled with endless ‘table stakes’: great teams, client-centric, innovative approaches. You name it. We’ve seen plenty of it. The truth is that these are the bare minimum expectations that clients have. They are not differentiators.

Such poorly designed websites are typically a result of one of two systemic problems: poor value proposition or leadership’s misconception about modern marketing and sales practices. We’ve talked to many consultancies who still underestimate how helpful a functional website can be as a sales channel and a step in the sales process. This leads them to build horrible sites, failing to sell anything. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy to the detriment of these firms.

In the age where modern buyers do online research before even considering reaching out to an external partner, winning business via the web is possible. However, the digital footprint must be there and carefully curated and designed to appeal to the target audience. A website is one of the key elements of the digital presence.

#8. Relying on hiring new salespeople as the silver bullet

There is nothing inherently wrong with having a dedicated business development or sales specialist. We’ve talked to a number of such people, and they are truly the rainmakers in their firms. However, these people are so successful in their jobs because these consulting firms have proper systems in place to support and facilitate the work of these sales professionals.

Unfortunately, such examples were relatively rare. A more common practice that we’ve seen among consulting firms is hiring a sales executive and then leaving them high and dry.

These BD leaders are expected to attract new clients, develop existing accounts, and magically transform the business, yet are often set up to fail from day one.

These consultancies have no differentiating value proposition. They have a poor expertise reputation. They utilise junior or generic marketing support. Often, internal alignment is superficial at best.

BD leaders often lack the necessary resources. They are disconnected from the client experience and focus solely on new client acquisition. Even the most talented sales professionals would struggle to succeed under such conditions.

We urge consultancies to remember: “Typical successful” firms will need 3-4x their new revenue target to meet their growth objectives; “high-performing” firms still need ~2x. We encourage consultancies to ask themselves whether a single BD director can achieve that, given the entire firm did a mere 2.5 in the past year. Doubtful…

Recommended reading: Hiring a Business Development Leader Will Not Fix Boutique Consultancies’ Growth Problems

#9. Service portfolio creep

Another common mistake we’ve seen several consultancies make because of their reactive mode of operation is expanding services solely to capture a larger audience or accommodate incoming requests. 

This not only leads to diluted positioning and operational complexity but also erodes credibility. When a consultancy of 30 people offers 12 service lines, it is hard to sell prospects on its ability to deliver. Simple math dictates that the consultancy should have no more than 2.5 experts per service line.

We acknowledge that service portfolios can change over time. We often encourage consultancies to return to the drawing board and redesign their offering. However, it should be a deliberate exercise that is centred around the goal of refining and deepening core expertise.

#10. No clear client impact data

Every consulting firm that we’ve spoken to claims to deliver value. Of course, they do. That’s what the consulting industry is built around – the ability of outside experts to achieve results that clients can’t achieve internally.

Sadly, most failed to document, measure, and showcase specific client results to prove their claim.

In many cases, this was due to their ad-hoc modus operandi. The high variance of engagement types and client issues makes standardising data aggregation tough. And this begs the question: How will these consulting firms ever reach a point where they can speak credibly to the results their methods deliver if every new project is new?

#11. Underinvesting in talent attraction

A common theme in our conversations with consulting firms was their struggle to recruit top consulting talent. Upon further investigation, we discovered that the most likely reasons were their weak employer value propositions (EVPs), unclear career paths, or lack of signature projects that inspire talent to join.

This is another unfortunate consequence of an ad-hoc business management and growth approach. If senior leaders within a consultancy do not have clarity about the journey their business is on, how can they create professional journeys for their talent? In fact, how can they even know with any degree of certainty what type of talent they should invest in?

In conclusion

Mistakes repeat when lessons aren’t learned.

If any of the mistakes we’ve listed here hit too close to home, 2025 is the year to stop playing small and rethink the fundamentals.

We encourage consulting firms to think of these mistakes as improvement and growth opportunities. Oftentimes, addressing one of these problem areas sparks a chain reaction. Designing a value proposition, for example, forces consultancy leaders to rethink their service portfolio, leading to a redesign of the digital presence.

Best of luck!

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